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{"id":447,"date":"2009-02-19T09:20:00","date_gmt":"2009-02-19T09:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/epiphenom\/2009\/02\/why-adults-dont-believe-in-god-perhaps.html"},"modified":"2014-12-07T05:43:01","modified_gmt":"2014-12-07T04:43:01","slug":"why-adults-dont-believe-in-god-perhaps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/epiphenom\/2009\/02\/why-adults-dont-believe-in-god-perhaps.html","title":{"rendered":"Why adults don’t believe in god… perhaps!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

It\u2019s more common in children than in adults, and in kids it even has a label \u2013 \u2018promiscuous teleology\u2019 \u2013 coined by Deborah Kelemen at Boston University. Kelemen\u2019s latests study explores the question of why adults are less likely than children to give teleological explanations. $\"Kelemen_2009_adult_teleology\"$ <\/a>Basically, the test subjects (121 university students) were flashed a series of questions that were either teleological (\u2018Water condenses to moisten the air\u2019) or physical (\u2018Flowers wilt because they get dehydrated\u2019), with a few questions thrown in just to make sure people were paying attention (\u2018Zebras have black stripes because they eat coal\u2019, \u2018Children wear gloves to keep their hands warm\u2019).<\/p>\n

They had to say whether the statement was true or false. The catch was that they only had a limited time to decide. I\u2019ve pulled out two of the results in this graph. In the \u2018No time pressure\u2019 condition, they had 5 seconds. In the \u2018Time pressure\u2019 condition, they only had 3.2 seconds.<\/p>\n

As you can see, there\u2019s a pretty clear result. Even with plenty of time to think about it, well educated adults succumb to incorrect teleological explanations pretty often. But when you put these people under time pressure, the acceptance rate jumps.<\/p>\n

Kelemen reckons that this is because adults actually retain their childhood predilection for teleology, but they repress it consciously. They\u2019ve been taught the real explanations, and when they have time to think it through, their education shows. But their gut instinct is for design.<\/p>\n

And what does this have to do with a belief in a creator god? Well, Kelemen actually didn\u2019t find any correlation between a predilection for teleology and belief in god. But I have several problems with the analysis.<\/p>\n

Firstly, all \u2018belief in god\u2019 was treated the same \u2013 but some people believe in a creator god, and some in a distant god. You would expect teleological beliefs to correlate not with just any religious beliefs, but only with belief in an active, creator god. Secondly, all the teleological responses \u2013 hurried and unhurried \u2013 were lumped. You would only expect the unhurried, conscious responses to match with a conscious belief in god.<\/p>\n

Rather more interesting is the evidence that, as children grow up, their belief in god declines (see, for example, Francis 1989 for the UK and Uecker et al<\/span> 2007 for the USA). If adults lose teleological beliefs by suppressing them as a result of education, is this perhaps at least a partial explanation of this loss of faith?<\/p>\n

$\"ResearchBlogging.org\"$ <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Deborah Kelemen, Evelyn Rosset (2009). The Human Function Compunction: Teleological explanation in adults Cognition<\/span> DOI: 10.1016\/j.cognition.2009.01.001<\/a>
\n
\nFrancis, L.J. (1989). Measuring attitudes towards Christianity during childhood and adolescence. Personality & Individual Differences, 10<\/span>, 695-698<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Uecker, Jeremy E., Regnerus, Mark., Vaaler, Margaret L. (2007). Losing My Religion: The Social Sources of Religious Decline in Early Adulthood Social Forces, 85<\/span>, 1667-1692<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"